Iron Dome has been called a “game-changer”: it can discern a civilian-bound rocket from a harmless one and destroy it in a matter of seconds. The Israel Defense Forces said the system has a 90 per cent accuracy rate and has knocked down more than 340 projectiles since violence began escalating last week.

Whether Iron Dome is a defensive marvel or a symbol of the limits of technology depends on whom you ask.

“Life (in Israel) is very much disrupted, even if most of the incoming projectiles are intercepted,” says Greg Thielmann, a senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Arms Control Association.

The projectiles fired into Israel by Hamas are mostly crude rockets with a short range of approximately 20 kilometres. Many miss their target. Hamas has also fired Iranian-designed Fajr-5 rockets with a range of up to 80 kilometres at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in recent days. Most missed, and Iron Dome destroyed the rest.

Iron Dome uses relatively simple technology, said Christian Leuprecht, a professor of political science at the Royal Military College of Canada and at Queen’s University in Kingston.

The speed at which the automated system functions is the complicated part. “Nobody would be fast enough,” he says.

Each Iron Dome battery — five are deployed throughout Israel — uses radar to detect rockets seconds after they’re fired. The missile’s speed, angle of ascent and other measurements are computed to determine where it might land.

Because Hamas’s rockets have such a short range, the system has mere seconds to respond. If the projectile is determined to be a threat, Iron Dome launches two lighter, faster missiles that intercept the rocket mid-air. Whichever reaches the rocket first explodes with enough power to mitigate the risk of harm from falling debris.

Some have credited the system with preventing violence from escalating further: more Israeli civilian deaths would likely lead to more support for a bloody ground invasion.

But Leuprecht says Iron Dome’s effectiveness is limited. “Hamas doesn’t need to hit anything in Israel to achieve its objectives,” he said — air raid sirens and widespread fear are enough. “It’s classic psychological warfare.”

Thielmann notes that Hamas is now launching multiple rockets at a time, attempting to overwhelm Iron Dome. “Unfortunately, this is a great formula for an arm’s race. Hamas will try to pump these (rockets) out like sausages.”